Description

Zakariya Ahmed Ismail Hersi tells Andrew Harding why he defected from al-Shabab. One of the most senior figures to defect from Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab has urged his former colleagues to stop targeting civilians and to begin negotiations with the Somali government. In his first interview with a foreign journalist, Zakariya Ahmed Ismail Hersi - who once had a $3m (£1.9m; €2.7m) bounty from the US government on his head - condemned al-Shabab's attack on Garissa University College in Kenya in April, where 148 students were killed.